RJ Harris on the Issues; A Constitutional Libertarian's Perspective

RJ Harris is a candidate for the Libertarian Party's 2012 nomination for President of the United States. RJ is also a career Army National Guard Officer and three-time combat veteran having just returned from Afghanistan in August 2011. Additionally he has been a small business owner and an Air Traffic Controller in the Federal Aviation Administration. RJ is a University of Oklahoma graduate in Philosophy and a third year law student (3L) at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. He is a Constitutional Libertarian and a prominent leader in the nation-wide grassroots Liberty Candidate movement having run a vigorous 2010 campaign for Oklahoma's 4th U.S. Congressional District against incumbent, (R). Tom Cole. RJ has appeared on the Lisa Wexler Show, Fox News' Freedom Watch with Judge Andrew Napolitano, before numerous Tea Party candidate panels and been the featured guest on conservative/libertarian talk-radio/blogger talk programs across the country. Endorsements for RJ’s 2010 U.S. Congressional Campaign include: Senator Rand Paul, Mr. John Dennis, Ms. Debra Medina, the Republican Liberty Caucus, the Oklahoma Conservative PAC and grassroots Tea Party organizations from across Oklahoma. RJ is also a proud a son of the Kiowa Nation located in Carnegie, OK. His father, Dr. RichardMichael Settainte (White Bear) Harris, is the Physician for the Kiowa People. RJ's mother is Deborah Jill (Rochelle) Barnes; a retired business executive residing in Casa Grande, AZ along with RJ's Step-Father Mr. Sam W. Barnes; a Musician and retired Sales Rep. RJ has been married to his wife Jennifer for 20 years and they flourish together in Norman, OK along with their five children; Mercedes, Georgia, Wyatt, Peyton and Braxton.

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Proper role of the Federal Government:

Protect individual Liberty and state Sovereignty. Provide for the common Defense of the Republic. Conduct foreign policy. Regulate (make regular NOT infringe or prohibit) foreign and interstate commerce.

Foreign Policy:

Peace through strength in International Waters and at home; free trade, honest friendship and the cessation of entangling alliances abroad.

Common Defense:

I fully support a very robust Common Defense achieved under the George Washington and Thomas Jefferson Doctrines of Peace through strength in International Waters and at home; free trade, honest friendship and the cessation of entangling alliances abroad. However, our projection of an "outer defense" through our Navy and Marine Corps needs to be executed with the greatest precision possible, NOT through unconstitutional delegations of congressional war declaration powers to the President for the purpose of preemptive invasions or costly occupations. Therefore, all expeditionary un-declared wars and unconstitutional deployments of our Army and Air Force WILL cease immediately. This specifically includes ending all military actions in Korea, Iraq and Libya. Moreover, I will return Homeland Security to the care of our National Guard which has always been and always should remain the Republic’s primary means of homeland defense. I will remove the TSA from the business of providing personal airport security and return that function to the Citizens, Airlines and Airport Operators respectively. The Air National Guard will then protect the Republic’s airspace NOT individuals.

Congress should work tirelessly to ensure that when war is necessary, that it be properly declared and when military actions short of war are necessary that those also be properly codified and announced through the issuance of legal letters of reprisal in accordance with Article I, Section 8. I will veto ANY Declaration of War of Letters of Reprisal which; 1. Are not passed by a 2/3 majority vote of the Congress and 2. Which give the President the power to widen the scope of the conflict without returning to Congress for that permission. No president should commit the lives of Republic’s Posterity to the hell of battle with such little resolve of the Congress as what passed Obama Care. The only justifiable reasons to vote for a war declaration or issuance of letters of reprisal are: for war; the infringement upon the lives, liberty or property of Americans by foreign sovereigns: for letters of reprisal; the same infringements above engaged in by stateless actors such as terrorists or pirates.

Lastly, I will seek officers having achieved Flag Rank and encourage them to apply to the Congress for Letters of Marque which will then allow Citizens of the Republic to serve abroad for the causes which are on their conscious. This action will allow those that want to fight for freedom around the world or provide humanitarian aid to do so WITHOUT cost the U.S. Taxpayers OR forcing those sworn only to defend the Republic and its Constitution to fight for other People’s and other Sovereigns.

Aside: there is a very convincing argument that our expeditionary wars and CIA interference with foreign sovereigns has hurt rather than improved upon our common Defense by spending the Republic into bankruptcy, overstretching our military forces and making unforeseen enemies out of former allies which we had previously trained and equipped at our expense. Thus, I will return the CIA back to Naval Intelligence and cease its nefarious operations which have produced dubious security at best and seriously exposed the Republic to foreign aggression at worst.

Taxes:

I will work with the Congress, or around the Congress through the state legislatures directly, to repeal the 16th Amendment and end all personal income tax; the collection of which presupposes the government's ownership of the people's labor which is directly counter to the prohibitions against involuntary servitude in the 13th Amendment. The federal government, operating within the natural constraints of its constitutional income, should not be levying direct taxes on the People. Instead the Republic should fund its minimal operations through user fees charged to the states for federal government services. Like for like exchange is not taxation; it is commerce.

War on Drugs:

I will end the War on Drugs. Congress will have to pass by 2/3 vote, and thereby make veto-proof, any laws which attempt to infringe upon Life, individual Liberty, personal Property or state Sovereignty because I will veto every single one of these tyrannies of the majority. All the while I will argue vehemently and directly to the People that the federal government has no more right to tell us what we can put into our bodies than it has to tell us where we can work, who we can hire, what we can watch, who we can marry, what we can say, or who and how we can worship. The Creator made us free and our Founders intended for the Constitution and the Republic to protect that birthright and it is high time that we took back our Liberty from tyrants of all political stripes.

Bailouts, Stimulus and Social Welfares:

Bailouts are a form of individual welfare and progressive socialism which is unconstitutional. The government acquires the funds to promulgate bailouts only by taking money from prosperous individuals to replace the losses of failed private enterprise. Taking this action presupposes that the federal government has the authority to take labor by force of law and redistribute the wealth created by that labor to others. A legal taking presupposes that the federal government owns the labor of its citizens, and that the individual does not own his/her own labor. Ownership of someone else's labor is the definition of involuntary servitude which is forbidden by the thirteenth amendment. Thus, I will veto any and all un-constitutional and therefore tyrannical attempts by the Congress to promulgate further bailouts and social welfare schemes.

Monetary Policy:

I will work with the Congress to repeal the legislation which granted the privately held Federal Reserve Bank a monopoly over our money supply and replace it with legislation which eliminates legal tender laws. This will allow consumers and producers to transact their business in whatever form of currency they choose. This is especially important because when the government controls the printing of money it can force its Citizens to use that currency under the cover of the law. Then, when the government’s supply of this currency runs out it can simply spend as much more as it wants by issuing bonds and printing more Federal Reserve Notes until the wealth of all evaporates under the hyper inflation which has always and will always cause the collapse of a fiat currency. Macro-economically speaking the inflation line has remained flat except during those time when the Congress has allowed the circulation of a fiat currency.

Putting aside that academic argument for a moment, and in accordance with Article I Section 10, I will direct the Treasury to conduct ALL transactions with the States in gold or silver bullion. Moreover, I will direct the Justice Department to take up the cases of those citizens demanding the same which are currently being forced to conduct state transactions in an unconstitutional fiat tender. Neither of these two actions need to wait for legislation or repeal of legislation since support for them comes directly from the Constitution itself.

Federal Reserve:

Following the precedent set by President Andrew Jackson, I will seek all legal means to cancel the charter of the Federal Reserve and put an end to its gross unconstitutional manipulation of the Republic's economy and currency. "You are a den of vipers! I intend to rout you out, and by the eternal God, I will rout you out! If the people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution before morning." President Andrew Jackson to the U.S. Bank.

Immigration:

Our great Republic has been built on robust immigration policies which have continued, until socialism took root here, to fuel the long term growth of our middle class. Each successive ethnic migration has emerged and prospered in our economy which in turn then provided new producers and consumers for our markets here at home and abroad. In fact, the founders considered immigration to be so critical that the Congress was not even allowed to regulate it until 1808. Rather than turning our backs on the Founder’s wisdom and on the prosperity provided by each generation of immigrants, we should address those issues which underlie the current hostility towards immigrants. 1. Stop all unconstitutional federal welfare spending which will then disincentive those looking for a free ride on the tax-payers dollar while incentivizing hard working immigrants looking for freedom, liberty and an opportunity to help us improve our economy. 2. Remove the socialism and the high taxes required to pay for it, which are both driving away business and entrepreneurism, while returning to capitalism in all markets including labor.

These actions will restore free markets which will then incentivize employers to keep their productions in the United States. The result will be a labor market boom as producers return to the United States to engage in commerce with our newly growing middle classes. Taking these two steps will turn around our whole perception of immigration and immigrants as we go from competing with them for the scraps left over from socialism to desperately needing them to compete with the rising middles classes in China, India and other emerging markets. Add to this that we need a larger and more fiscally healthy middle class to help us repay the debts incurred by generations of socialism and the trade off is more than fair.

Thus, I will work to eliminate the socialism which is strangling our economic growth, and then return to the Founder’s principles of embracing immigration and immigrants as a means to increasing the size and strength of our domestic markets and the prosperity of the Republic. Moreover, once the Congress has begun repealing the unconstitutional social welfares which are bankrupting the Republic and chasing its jobs overseas, I will issue a presidential pardon for all immigrants currently living in the Republic and push Congress hard for sustainable and permissive immigration legislation.

However, the fundamental readon for the existence of any government being the defense of the Lives, Liberty and/or property of its Citizens, as President I will ensure that the immigration process is conducted with the greatest respect for the property owners in the border states who are currently being forced off their lands by the drug cartels and the human traffickers. Therefore, in keeping with one of the FEW legitimate uses of government force, I WILL deploy the National Guard to defend our Border State property owners from the armed gangs which are currently invading our Republic with near impunity, trampling on the lives and property of our border state ranchers, infringing the sovereignty of the Border States and effectively waging a clandestine war upon We the People in the process.

Health Care:

Article I section 8 allows the Congress to provide for the general welfare "of the United States," not the individual citizens thereof. Health care is an individual welfare and as such it is supposed to be left to the states or the people to provide in accordance with the 10th Amendment which leaves all such powers to the states or the people respectively. However, the Republic is obliged to provide healthcare to its veterans for their injuries sustained in the service of the Republic, to Native Nations who negotiated such by way of ratified treaties towards the ends of the cessation of hostilities (protected by Article VI) and to those who have become detrimentally reliant upon the Medicare system by having been made to pay into that system for the bulk of their adult lives. (see Medicare)

Education:

Article I section 8 allows the Congress to provide for the general welfare "of the United States," not individual citizens thereof. Education is an individual welfare and as such it is supposed to be left to the states or the people to provide in accordance with the 10th Amendment which leaves all such powers to the states or the people respectively. Thus, I will work for the elimination of the Federal Department of Education and to send all of its funding back to the states. Complete privatization, vouchers, charter schools and other education initiatives are issues for the state legislatures NOT the Congress. None of this should be construed or interpreted against GI Bills or student loan repayments for service in the Militia, Navy or Marine Corps. The Republic needs educated professionals to provide for its common Defense and a like for like exchange is NOT charity or welfare...it is commerce.

Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid:

These are unconstitutional social welfare programs and as such they must be eliminated eventually. However, they also represent debts because they are schemes which were paid into with the promise of return. Congress should work to end these programs responsibly by buying out those that want out, not allowing generations that have not paid into this system to enter it, yet continue to pay the promised benefits to those that have paid into it to their own detrimental reliance. Were we to end all other unconstitutional spending, we would be able to meet our obligations to the Seniors that have become dependent upon this system while at the same time moving the younger generations to the free markets where individual welfare belongs.

State/Native Nation Sovereignty:

Congress should end all federal mandates and eliminate or repeal all legislation which unconstitutionally infringes upon the sovereignty guaranteed to the States and Native Nations under the 10th Amendment and Article VI.

Also, I will work with the state legislatures to repeal the 17th Amendment which removed the election of Senators from their power. It was intended that the House should represent the people and the Senate represent the states. Since the passage of the 17th Amendment, during the upswing of the progressive movement, state Sovereignty has been dealt a major blow. Given that EVERY state in the Republic was against Obama Care, there remains little doubt that had the state Legislatures been able to put pressure on their Senators as was intended under the original Constitution, Obama Care would NEVER have passed the Senate.

Further, I will order the repatriation of ALL Native American artifacts, taken by the Republic in its race across the continent, back to their Nations of origin. Every care will be taken to ensure the transfer of custody occurs without damage to the artifacts. However, even if the argument that certain tribes are unable to fully care for these artifacts is sustained; if those same tribes demand the repatriation of the artifacts anyway the transfers will occur. Many Native People believe that to keep forever the power given by Nature to the artifact and its original owners through the object, past when that power should have returned whence it came, is immoral and it is not for the Republic to dispute that belief or practice.

Lastly, I will proposition the Congress to grant full representation to our Native Nations by extending to their confederation of the 500+ federally recognized tribes two Senators and one congressperson appropriated by the same census process as the states. The end result of this legislation would be 2 additional Senators and between 4 or 5 additional Congresspersons.
Most Citizens of the Republic do not know that we are more than 50 states and a collection of territories. We also include more than 500 Native Nations whose sovereignty has been recognized both by treaties as wells as the actions of past presidents and congresses. Having built our Republic upon the land taken from these Nations it is WELL PAST TIME that they received the same level of representation as the states which have postdated them.

Department of the Interior, Energy, the EPA and the Environment:

The progressive-era appropriation and current existence of federal trust lands are completely anathema to the notions of state/tribal sovereignty. The only federal properties should be of those types enumerated in the Constitution; those being a capital, courts, legislative facilities, forts, magazines, arsenals or naval docks as well as those lands reserved for the Native Nations through ratified treaties which are protected by Article VI. I will work with Congress to return all other trust/reserve land, currently held by the federal government, back to the States or Native Nations in which those lands are located so that the states and tribes can hold or dispose of their energy/natural resources as they see fit. A competitive fifty-state market for energy will ensure that resources are harvested in the cleanest and most efficient manners possible and at the lowest costs to consumers.

With the federal lands properly divested back to the states and tribes, the reason for these agencies at the federal level ceases to exist. State Legislatures or Tribal Councils wishing to take on the services of the EPA for the protection of state/tribal held lands would need to decide this on a state by state tribe by tribe basis consistent with their sovereignty protected in Article VI and the 10th Amendment.

The environment is best protected when property owners have access to the courts for redress of trespass actions. After all, who has a greater interest in the environment than an aggrieved/damaged property owner? Cases in controversy falling within federal jurisdiction, (cases between parties from different states) should have priority on the federal docket and receive expedited handling to ensure environmental damage is prevented or minimized. Environmental trespass actions occurring wholly with the boundaries of a single state or tribe are the purview of those sovereign entities and must be redressed by them alone based upon the will of their Citizens. Note: A trespass which has occurred wholly within a State or Native Nation which spills over into another State, Native Nation or National Waters IS NOT a trespass occurring only within that State or Native Nation.

Reading Bills:

I will propose a Constitutional Amendment making it a high crime (felony) for a Congressperson to vote affirmatively for a bill or for the President to sign into law the same that they have not personally read in its entirety. It is past time to end tyranny caused by the careless and or willful ignorance of the legislative and executive branches.

Economy:

The federal government has no authority to run "the economy." It is only supposed to regulate (make regular, not infringe or prohibit) trade to ensure free and open markets under the authority found in article I section 8. Individuals making reasoned choices for their own best interests will ensure that the economy operates at peak efficiency without governmental interference.

Second Amendment:

The purpose of the second amendment is so that the states, relying upon their armed militias, can resist the rise of a despotic centralized government which tries to supplant our federalist system based upon individual liberty and state sovereignty (sounds like something that is going on now). Thus, I will work with the Congress to repeal all unconstitutional federal firearms legislation and return the training and discipline of the Militia to the states as was intended and codified in article I of the Constitution. Moreover, I will pardon all Citizens whose only “trespass” was the exercising of their right to “keep and bear arms.”

1st Amendment:

The first amendment provides freedom OF religion, NOT freedom FROM religion. Free expressions of religious beliefs should never be infringed upon and prayer, regardless of the faith from which it is offered, should never be prohibited in ANY public venue.

Moreover, I will not allow the Department of Justice to be used as a weapon against the press, bloggers, whistle blowers or any other Citizens practicing their rights to free speech, assembly and/or expression.

Marriage:

The Constitution was designed and intended by the founders to constrain the government, NOT individuals. Thus, I do not support efforts to define marriage at the federal level. Moreover, Marriage is a religious sacrament and the government has no business telling churches that they MUST or MUST NOT wed individuals based on their sexual orientation. Civil Unions are contracts to be regulated by states NOT the federal government. The Full Faith and Credit Clause only requires recognition of contracts made in another state NOT that the recognizing state offer the same contract...so no it is not a back-door to requiring same sex unions in states that don't want them. Thus, defining marriage at the federal level infringes upon the sovereignty of states to define contracts and I will never support the infringement of state Sovereignty or individual Liberty.

Afghanistan-9/11 Truth:

I believe that the preponderance of the evidence shows that our Republic was viciously attacked by international terrorists, trained and funded by the then-government of Afghanistan, and that the United States acts perfectly within its rights as a sovereign by killing and capturing international terrorists and pirates. However, I also believe that the Authorization for the Use of Military Force in Afghanistan is flawed in that it does not require the President to present evidence against additional sovereigns for the procurement of additional constitutional declarations of war. Through this loophole was the Invasion of Iraq made possible which further justifies the Founders trepidation at leaving the decision to go on offense up to the executive.

Considering then that the military objectives of the armed conflict in Afghanistan, the ouster of the Taliban and the restoration of a legitimately elected government, were met years ago I will immediately end the deployments to Afghanistan and remove all U.S. Military personnel from the region. Once back within the United States I will present the Battle Flags of the Army and the Air Force to the Congress and return all their standing forces to the Militia.

I respect that there is a growing number of people that do not agree with my conclusion about 9/11. Thus, I will direct the Department of Justice to undertake a full investigation to get to the answers once and for all about what happened on that day and what, if anything, has been kept from the full light of Truth. This investigation will include in its scope ALL the events of the Oklahoma City bombing and the findings of State Representative Charles Key's Oklahoma State House Directed Investigation.

Privacy:

I will direct the Department of Justice to cease all domestic spying on We the People and I will work to nullify the gross infringement upon the 4th Amendment known as the Patriot ACT.

Unions:

I support the 1st Amendment rights of Citizens to freely assemble into Unions. However, no Union will receive any privilege or immunity from my office NOT constitutionally obliged to any single private citizen.

Civil Liberty:

Codifying the application of the Constitution to the entire body politic; I will work with the Congress for an amendment which states that the Constitution is henceforth intended to apply to all Citizens of the United States regardless of class, race, gender, sexuality, creed or religion even if such was not the original intent of the Constitution's framers. We have come a long way since 1789 knocking down class, racial and gender barriers along the way that the framers accepted as products of their age. It is time our Constitution reflected and codified this commitment to the equality of the body politic.

Abortion:

The due process and equal protection provided by the fifth and fourteenth amendments to all persons, including unborn persons, makes abortion unconstitutional. What is in order then is not an activist court ruling, but a Constitutional Amendment defining the beginning of personhood. Until such time as this well overdue legislation is passed, I will use the full power of my office to protect the lives of the unborn Citizens of this Republic. Without Life there is neither Liberty nor Property. The Congresses of the 19th Century had a Supreme Court ruling to hide behind which stripped the personhood of the Republic’s Black Citizens so as to keep them in bondage. The Supreme Court rulings we have today allowing the murder of the Republic’s Unborn Citizens are no better and neither is our Congress for hiding behind them.

RJ Harris
Constitutional Libertarian

If you would like my position on an issue not listed herein please ask it on this thread and I will reply personally. I am running for an office which requires me to swear to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Thus, if you want to debate me on these issues then be ready to stand totally on the Constitution to make your arguments as I will not agree to breach the People’s consent to be governed merely to accommodate your personal political ideology. Doing that would make me no better than the Republicans and Democrats which have done the same to our Republic’s near ruination.

I agree he is a champion for liberty. Check out his new website: http://harrisforpresident.com RJ is now a candidate for the Libertarian Party's Presidential nomination. Ron Paul is my "Plan A" but RJ Harris is my "Plan B."

It is refreshing to see someone who claims to support liberty avoid the hostility and animosity so many in the movement bear toward immigrants. You have truly analyzed the situation correctly: "It's the welfare state, stupid!"

One whom both the Libertarian and Constitutional parties can potentially agree on? I like this platform, but hope that if an act of God (and yes, that's what it would take) gives RP the Republican nomination, he will drop out and endorse Paul. I hope RP does the same EARLY if he does not get the RNC nod.

—

"Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the office of a thoroughly nasty business concern." ~~C.S. LewisLove won! Deliverance from Tyranny is on the way! Col. 2:13-15

"and our Founders intended for the Constitution and the Republic to protect that birthright and it is high time that we took back our Liberty from tyrants of all political stripes."

RJ, Thank you for laboring to hammer out this declaration of your truly held Constitutional Liberty beliefs.

Usurpers abound all around us, but when we know and value our birthright as we ought, we can more readily stand up to reclaim what has always been ours, in the strength that God would have us serve him in.

—

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them. - Frederick Douglass

The Founder's were displeased with the Constitution
---It was the line of best fit
---It was "as close" as they could get

There is no "birth-right"

There is no "right" to life (though I'm against abortion and the HEVA of children in seniors would be VERY high in a free-society) -- I mean to say there is no "guarantee" to life, granted by God. Therefore a claim of "right" to it is childish from a Biblical standpoint.

There is no "right" to happiness -- "God" leaves it up to us to be happy or miserable.

Self-Health
Self-Defense
Self-Rule
....If there is a God (my personal beliefs aside) then he meant for us to advance-adapt-innovate the above three and that if we fail in this FIRST of laws we'd created 10,000 upon 10,000 to replace them (as the Bible says).

Most of the Founder's were not Christians -- Deists (in a romantical sense), but definitely not part of the modern "evangelical" movement.

Patrick Henry was an "anti-federalist" who was a Welfarist to Big Gov't (he was a slave to convention and a slave master to boot).

Patrick wrote to Robert Pleasants Jan-18-1773:

Could anyone believe I am the master of slaves of my own purchase! I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living here without them. I will not, I cannot justify it. However culpable my conduct, I will so far pay my devoir to virtue as to own the excellence and rectitude of her precepts, and lament my want of conformity to them"

I think the most astounding revelation to the Founders would be that we are "still" (after their abandonment of the spirit of the document failed before the ink even dried) some 236 years later trying to make rich men conform to it.

I must ask you what your, "Therefore", is there for when you assert that, "a claim of 'right' to it is childish from a Biblical standpoint"?

You also make several other biblical assumptions, without citing, and then make a vague summary of what the Founders might have believed apply to, "the modern 'evangelical movement'", as though anything I posted had anything to do with that position.

As to Patrick Henry's slave holdings, here's a quote that might help put that into perspective:

that you would rather be "free" in reality then owned by a guilty man who frees you in theory; as part of one days catharsis.

What "claims" do I make against the Bible that you could possibly refute.

Let me try it again: There is NOTHING in the Bible (or in reality) that gives us a "right" to Life -- meaning at any momemnt we can die against our will; there's no incantation or prayer that can reverse death once it's taken us and as it approaches (save science or some manual resuscitation) there's no "right" we can claim to alter it.

You made the "creator" comment -- claiming he made us free and tying that comment to the Constitution which was penned by the Founder's. How was that difficult to follow?

"We" cannot take anything back as a "group"

"We" can take it back when everyone sees themselves first as a Consumer -- which is the base and 24/7 reality of every individual on the planet.

All "costs" must be revealed to the consumer -- then we see everything.

If we identify as Christian, or as Banker, or as Owner, or as Student, or as Senior, or as Race "minority" we can no longer see the big picture -- we are "consumed" by our association and are bound by its conventions.

Not everyone is a Christian, a Banker, an Owner, a Student, a Senior, or a Race Minority -- but everyone is a Consumer.

When the Consumer is "free" (un-impuned and bares no hidden costs) then all are free and there is no need to comply with false unions.

There was either a Big Bang or a Creation Moment -- The original production moment (if you will); after that there was no more production only Consumption.

Consumption = To Use, To Waste (diminish), and to Transform.

If Big Bang -- Then there was nothing and then something, then re-arranging owing to attractive and repellant forces, mass cooling and colliding. Life comes from this process (somehow).

If the Creation Moment -- Then God burst life-elements forward (out of his being -- which has no measurement by human instrument or computation) and his "design team" (if you will) transformed, used, diminished, and recycled the building blocks in such a way as to form complex life.

In either case (whatever you believe) no "man" can give "rights" in absolute terms -- nor can he sell the idea that God gave one group of men rights over that of another; these "rights" in practice-observation-truth were always administered by "force-agency"

The most blasphemous of statements by the Founding Slave Holders / Benefactors (of said system even if they did not own slaves) or the Founding Indian People / Cultural Destroyers (either directly by action, by pen, or by proxial benefit) said was "man" (by curious definition) has the "right" to life -- that another man cannot "lord" over it -- and that all-men (by even more curious definition) are created (by God presumably) equal.

Hog-swallop!!! They did not believe that at all -- other than by cathartic musing.

If you do not want to "consume" slavery then you stop -- less you are a slave to convention; if the latter than you should not preach about liberty or God.

And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to General Alexander Smyth, Jan. 17, 1825

It is between fifty and sixty years since I read it [the Apocalypse], and I then considered it merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams.

If RP is showing us anything it's that Diplomacy and the Constitution have no power over men.
---Not the Founders (they mostly hated the document) and they went against it's spirit before the ink dried. Unless you think Slavery and Reservationism are part of a free-market then yeah -- let's Harken Back to those freer days.
---Nor Industry Leaders or Bankers (nuff said)
---Nor ANY politician from 1776 to now (save one or two) ever came close to following it

[Insert Einstein's Definition of Insanity]
---Get a tattoo of it

Voting is the Circumvention of Consumer-Will
---Every dollar taken from he consumer is less money going towards those "groups" (and they purchasing power) who are lobbying in the first place.
---It is a Circular Loop Error

If the Fed are counterfeiters then Lobbying is Bribery (plain and simple).

Lobbying is the PURCHASE of a senior politicians vote.
---Only the senior politcians vote truly matters
---SPs control the war chest and the special committee seat assignments; both are needed to secure future elections.
---Jr. Politicians vote along party lines

Imagine if you had to bribe ALL politicians
---Well civilians might because they are ignorant but Big Industry knows exactly who to bribe.

Infact this is why Auto-Workers, Law Enforcement, and Teachers lobbying efforts have ALWAYS resulted it bupkiss.

Senior Politicians (when they retire) will hold "offices" as "consultants" by the industries they represent not civilian-based unions, hahahaha. There's no money there and too few seats of power.

All this energy trying to study a document that does not "produce" anything because it's a 2-dememsional piece of paper that EVERY politicians has ignored save TWO (at that most) -- Ron Paul and Robert Taft. Probably Adams and Paine were the next closest, especially in regard to the "spirit" of liberty.

Washington and Jefferson were slave owners; please let them rest in peace -- they cannot teach you how to bring about liberty or small gov't based individualism.

Slavery and Reservationism (and Jefferson's Francophillia) can NEVER lead towards "small gov't" -- They are Big Gov't (collusion) with State Gov't models. First established by the British and then "thefted" by the Founder's who were tired of paying duty.

Mr. Harris, thank you for a thorough and thoughtful statement on the issues. I respect your dedication to the Constitution and your love of peace, prosperity and liberty. I hope that you will run for office again. It would be great if you were to run for President if the Republican Party does not nominate Ron Paul. I would support you.

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